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I am so in love with the budget. [LAUGHS] Hi, my name is Vanessa Bowen. I'm a money and mindset transformation coach and the founder of Mint Worthy. And today I'm talking about budgeting. I had a mentor who asked me how I was managing my finances. And she asked me if I had a budget. And I remember saying, nope, budget is not in my vocabulary. And I was so resistant to creating one. I procrastinated.
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I pretty much avoided her calls for about a week until she tricked me, invited me over to her house, and then sat me down and we created a budget. And I remember feeling so-- kind of mad but also happy because I was like, OK, this is going to mean my finances will change. But in the back of my mind, I had all of those typical beliefs about a budget. I believe it's restrictive.
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It's going to suck the fun out of life. I'm not going to be able to shop. And I'm not going to have to stick to it anyway, so what's the point? But it was completely the opposite. We sat down. And I didn't even know where to begin. I had no idea how to create this. I thought it will take me a decade to create it. And within a few hours, we had the budget set. It allowed me to be so clear where my money was going. It allowed me to be in control of my finances instead my finances controlling me.
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And since then, I've always had a budget to keep me on track. So although I've had a budget since that time, I haven't been perfect all the time. But I try to live by these three principles. They're kind of my three tricks to make sure that you stick to a budget. So number one, you have to make sure your money goals are compelling. You have to make sure that they align with your core values, they align with who you are.
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You can't just pick goals out of the sky or pick a goal that everyone else has. Everyone wants to buy a house, so that means I need to buy a house. Maybe you really don't want a house. Who knows? But you have to pick a goal that you feel connected to because if not, you won't be motivated to stick to your budget because your budget is the plan for you to reach those goals. So first, make your goals compelling. Number two, you have to make sure your budget encompasses everything, that it shows your full financial picture.
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Most of the time, people will just have their typical monthly expenses, but you also want to have your debt repayment plan. How fast do you want to get out of debt? Because that shifts your spending. And also your savings plan. How quickly do you want to reach those savings goals? You want to make sure your budget has everything in it, so you see your full financial picture because then you're going to be more motivated to stick towards it because you'll know what's at stake.
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And number three, I would say you have to action the budget. A budget doesn't work if you don't work it. So I always say to have weekly money dates. And they're literally weekly dates with my money where I sit in and I check in and I see how is my spending, how did I do versus budget, is there anything that's coming up that I need to adjust to make sure that I'm staying on track and I'm prioritizing my money.
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Thanks for watching and be sure to check out other videos on Compass. Yeah, this is hot money minute. [LAUGHS]
